London
CNN
—
King Charles III is set to meet the European Commission president on Monday as Britain and the EU work to finally reach an agreement on trade rules in Northern Ireland – a thorny and sensitive issue that has fueled post-Brexit tensions in Europe and on the island of Ireland.
Ursula von der Leyen is in the UK for a meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and will also meet with the King at Windsor Castle, where tea will be served, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.
It comes after negotiations over Northern Ireland heated up in recent weeks, following months of impasse over how to handle border checks in the nation, which is part of the UK but shares a soft border with Ireland, an EU country.
Even if a deal is agreed, Sunak faces a political challenge in ensuring it is signed into law without a costly backlash from hardline Euroskeptics in his Conservative Party.
Von der Leyen’s meeting with the King will be viewed by some within that wing as an inappropriate overreach by the apolitical monarch. “The King is pleased to meet any world leader if they are visiting Britain and it is the Government’s advice that he should do so,” the Palace said when it announced the sit-down.
According to a royal source, the meeting would be an opportunity for King Charles to discuss topics including the war in Ukraine and climate change.
The Northern Ireland Protocol was part of the deal that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiated and signed with Brussels that recognized the unique and delicate situation that Brexit created in Northern Ireland.
The protocol in theory meant goods traveling across the border wouldn’t need to be checked, therefore avoiding any border infrastructure. It was agreed that Northern Ireland would remain within the EU’s regulatory sphere. Goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain would be checked at an effective sea border, ensuring they wouldn’t need to be checked again once on the island of Ireland.
This enraged the pro-British Unionist community, who claimed they were being cut off from the rest of the UK and forced closer to the Republic. It has also affected trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the extent that the UK has not fully implemented the protocol.
